It's pretty damn amazing. Was there on wednesday (tr coming soon including visits to julian serrano, china poblano, jean georges, lotus, bouchon, chipotle(??), milos, holsteins)

Eagerly awaiting your thoughts on Chipotle, and I hope you took pictures.

General flavor profile will be the same at most Chipotles.

Went to both French Laundry and Meadowood last weekend. First time at TFL, second time at Meadowood (posted TR last time in April).

Service at both was outstanding. Superior job by TFL's sommelier (recently imported from Vegas). TFL's overall food was more approachable, Meadowood's more creative, riskier, with generally a slightly lower success rate (though it did have the best cheese course of all time this time). TFL overall better, and despite the heftier price tag prob slightly better value - mostly due to lower variance of outcome.

Also ate at a highly regarded restaurant in St. Louis a few weeks ago called Niche. Very good for the price. Nothing earth shattering, but works quite fine for STL and the price point.

Hope you post this report, I havent heard anything yet about the new menu changes at e' that were rolled out last month. Going to their sister experience MiniBar in DC in December, some people say its better, some say e' is better - either way i don't think I can lose.

I need help planing great meals for a family member who just had stones removed from her galbladder recently, which means that she is on a low sugar/low fat diet. Any good suggestions? I am not used to dealing with dietary restrictions, help please!

Go to Raku and get an awesome pile of grilled lean meats and veggies?

If it is a lot of trouble to go to tasting-menu type places and arrange substitutions/alternatives and/or the lady in question would really rather keep any fuss to a minimum, perhaps safety in steakhouses?

Salad+steak+steamed veg can't be too bad.

I had no problem having Picasso do a vegetarian tasting menu for my sister (I called ahead to make sure, idk if you can just show up and ask for it), but a request like low-sugar/low-fat may be a little too extreme and/or vague. I wouldn't be shocked if you ended up with more butter or oil than you'd like. Then again, it may be just fine.

I think Asian food with the exception of Americanized Chinese scares her, but I was planning on places like Sen, Raku, and Monta as a staple if I can get her to open her mind. You are I are on the same page there.

I am going to look into Twist's vegetarian tasting meal, that might work if they can accommodate a low-sugar diet. I was also advised to check out the Canyon Ranch. The AGM for China Poblano gave me a list of their dishes that are safe for her - but once again I'm afraid it won't appeal to her because she isn't as adventurous - but I'm going to try!

TT: Take her to Milos.

This mostly sounds like what I would do. Everything at Monta might be too fatty. Those broths are not light. Maybe the shoyu is ok? I don't really have a good idea of how restricted her fat intake is.

ZJ's Milos recommendation is good as long as she can tolerate a decent amount of olive oil.

Obv I don't know how restricted her diet is, or the lady in question. But if she has a 'closed mind' and is not adventurous when it comes to food PLUS the restricted diet, I'm going to guess that she just isn't going to enjoy it. At all. She will either have to struggle through several courses that she doesn't like/shouldn't eat or else will have to sit there uncomfortably while a resolution is organised. Even with super slick service at its best, I imagine she would be pretty self-conscious about it all. I would feel pretty uncomfortable with that (to the point I'd rather not go), I imagine she will too.

If it were me and I like her, I'd leave Sen, Raku etc for another time and choose something she will be comfortable with. Or if I didn't like her, I'd book Sen and ask her if she wants in.

I should have clarified, she is adventurous to a point... 7 treasures soup at China Poblano was one of the dishes in my head at the time, and she isn't the type to eat something with eyeballs so a whole dorad may be a bad idea but everything in between should work.

Justin - Milos is a good idea. thnx - see you soon. Emailed you about Little Inn btw.

Wish I'd seen this earlier, cause I'm curious.

It's VERY uncommon for someone to have stones removed and leave the gallbladder in - generally, you just pull the gallbladder, as it doesn't do very much except make surgeons rich. About the only time you'd try to "drain" a gallbladder would be in a person who is too sick to fade the anesthesia - which is pretty much at deaths door.

If she had her gallbladder out, she might have a little trouble digesting fatty foods, but not enough to where it should keep her from enjoying anything short of a quart of Haagen-daaz. And sugar isn't an issue one way or another, AFAIK.....

MM MD

Looks like Great Auntie Joan pulled a move

"I don't want to eat any of that foreign muck, time to pull the gallbladder story.."

NH.

Saw her last night, they didn't tell me she had the GB removed until yesterday - I was told it was just stones, typical family trying to protect the love ones living far away from worrying line. You may be right, she might be over-worrying about the foods she eats, but thats my family for ya. I was told all fish this week, but no sushi - yet they want to eat really good. This is not gonna be easy.

How is Mastro's? Me and some friends are staying at Aria and wanted to try a "nicer" restaurant.. maybe something for around $75/head. We all like steak.

Check out union at aria. Priced a bit better than others. But they do excellent steaks .

Union, Mastro's, come on people. Mastro's (qualifier- I've only been to the Beverly Hills one) is among the more overrated chain steakhouses. There are eleventy billion better steakhouses at that price point in Vegas. Right there at Aria you can go to Jean-Georges Steakhouse, that's a better option (but not really the best option).

Union is the same kind of joint as Fix, Stack, Brand etc. All the Light Group properties. Avoid unless you prefer scene over food. Too many better options.

Won a free dinner for 4 at any restaurant in Vegas and can run up the bill as large as we want except ridiculous bottles of wine, etc. Recommendations?

that doesn't exactly make sense...are you allowed to spend a fortune, or aren't you?

are you allowed to spend thousands, as long as it's on food and not wine?

Its whatever we want. I just don't want to buy $1k+ bottles of wine as I'd feel that would be taking advantage of the bet.

Depends on what kind of food you're into?

There's obv. Joel Robuchon, but pretty expensive steakhouses or sushi restaurants as well, where you have zero problem to get the bill into 4-figures.